


Leap of Faith

by Okadiah



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: F/M, Post-Star Wars: A New Dawn, Trust, and a vacation planet~, this one's got a lot of excitement and action
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:20:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26273995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okadiah/pseuds/Okadiah
Summary: While escaping Imperials, Hera puts her trust in Kanan. Kanan almost has a heart attack because of it.Prompt 4 for Kanera Week 2020.
Relationships: Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla
Comments: 14
Kudos: 77
Collections: Kanera Week 2020





	Leap of Faith

**Author's Note:**

> This one's a lot of fun with a super rare appearance by a sighted Kanan! (I never write sighted Kanan, this really might be a first, I can't remember lol)
> 
> Enjoy!

They'd done it again.

In a way, Kanan couldn’t help but think it was incredible, even if the odds of it happening not twice or three times, but now their seventh run straight seemed impossible. Really, in the years since the Clone Wars, he’d never had luck like this.

But then, he’d never had Hera around either.

He’d thought Gorse and Cynda would be a one-time hitch with the Empire, even with Hera Syndulla determined to be a rebel. Maybe he’d thought that while she’d gotten up to a lot of trouble on the old, mucky planet she’d found him on, she couldn’t get into trouble worse than that, even with him around.

Kanan learned how wrong he was very, _very_ quickly.

Like now. She’d told him that this was going to be nothing more than reconnaissance. Hell, she’d even tried to paint it as a _vacation_. After six months of doing missions for fuel, money, and the rebellion she wasn’t telling him much about — which was fine by him, no problem, he was _fine_ with being a grunt if it meant he could hang around her for maybe a little longer — he’d quietly thought about stealing away for a bit of R and R while she tried to unleash hell somewhere nearby.

The planet, admittedly, had been pretty gorgeous, all things considered. In his quest to avoid the Empire’s eye, he’d always chosen dank, dirty planets no one wanted to even look at, let alone set foot upon. It made hiding easier. Sure, he’d have liked to go somewhere nicer, but he’d never been comfortable enough to let himself enjoy something like that. And after boarding the _Escape_ once when he got a _little_ too visible for his tastes, he made it a personal rule that he wouldn’t go anywhere he couldn’t quickly get away from.

But Hera had the _Ghost_ and a need to avoid the Empire just as much as he did. Getting away would be a piece of cake if they were caught, especially since he was _positive_ she was the best pilot in the galaxy.

So he’d decided, what the hell. Beaches as far as the eye could see. Nightlife to die for. _So many credits_ to con unsuspecting assholes out of. Sure, he had to help her with recon, but otherwise? It looked like the smoothest gig he’d had yet. Had had in a long time, if he was being honest.

Maybe he should’ve thought more about their running track record together because, really. He shouldn’t have been surprised when hours after their first night in the area they were running for their lives from Imperials while they waited for Chopper to get the _Ghost_ and save their asses already.

“You know,” he said as they ran down a dark alley, shoving crates down behind them to slow the stormtroopers down. “I think you like this.”

“Eh, the exercise is pretty good, gotta admit,” Hera said as she glanced over her shoulder, her lekku flying back and striped in darkness. Fiery red light tore through the shadows, and they both ducked quickly to avoid the bolt before turning another corner. "Could do without that though."

"You said this would be like a vacation," Kanan snorted. "What? Wasn't this what you had in mind? I'm starting to think _every day_ is a vacation for you."

She snorted back at him, eyes flashing a vibrant emerald as they darted through a dim ray of light. "As if you don't like the thrill."

More blaster fire was sailing their way and to his surprise, they'd reached a dead end. Immediately they searched for ways out, any way out before they had to risk making a stand, but in a second Hera had already found their exit strategy. She pointed to a set of rungs leading to a roof.

"Up!"

Kanan was already shoving her ahead of him, drawing his blaster in case she needed some cover fire. But the angle of the rungs helped them in the end, keeping the bolts from landing too close and while in his mind it seemed to take an age, they were up and on a roof and racing from one rooftop to another rapidly. Behind them they could hear stormtroopers shouting, and while they couldn't see them yet, it was easy enough to track them just from the sound.

They had a head start, but not much of one.

"We've got to lose them," he said as he shot over his shoulder, managing to block a tight entrance by collapsing a set of rusted utility units that had been in the way. "Where's Chop?"

"Still too far away," Hera said after listening to the old astromech's warbled response when she asked. "He's close but we've got to keep ahead until then."

"Tell that to them," Kanan said as they jumped to the next building and realized that once again they'd come to a dead-end even worse than the one on the ground. Whereas the last one had boxed them in and forced them to go up, this one had drops directly to the _extremely_ distant ground on all sides with speeder traffic promising to make quick work of them before they even hit bottom. The only building close would take an act of god to cross.

They couldn't go further, and there was no way down.

"Any bright ideas?" he asked as he looked around, jogging around the ledge and hating how he could feel the seconds slip by. Already the stormtroopers sounded closer, closing in. They could make a stand here but even he didn't want to test their two blasters against a squad of freshly equipped Imps.

"If we could just make it over to that building," Hera said, searching for anything that could make the jump easier, but there was nothing up here except graffiti and garbage. "Chopper's close. We just need to last until then—"

But Kanan wasn't listening. His eyes were tracing the distant ledge beyond, a ledge too far for a normal person to cross. An impossible jump.

But like it or not, the fact of the matter was he wasn't normal, and for the first time ever, he was with someone who actually _knew_ that. Sure, in the six months he'd been working with Hera Syndulla, he'd never once mentioned it or the supernatural events which had taken place when they'd fought Count Vidian, but he’d bet his last chit that she hadn’t forgotten. He didn’t doubt that it took everything she had _every day_ not to bring it up, but somehow she hadn't. She'd left it alone like it had never happened.

But it had.

His hands dampened with sweat. " _That_ ledge?"

"Yeah, Kanan, but there's no way—"

"There's a way.”

She stared at him, and in the bright moonlight, her green eyes were less darkness and more deep emerald. They pieced together what he meant, adapting to the impossible.

"You don't mean—?"

"Yeah," he said angrily as he judged the distance again, unable to believe himself. Unable to believe that he was actually _considering_ this. "Yeah, that's exactly what I mean."

But he did mean it. And Stars above, kriff him, kriff her, kriff it all. This _always_ happened. He used the Force _once_ and then he used it again and again and again like a bad habit.

But if he didn't, they were going to get caught, and while he was down for a firefight, they were hugely disadvantaged. But if he managed this—

Kanan didn't give himself time to think. There wasn't time anyway, and who was he kidding? He was a man of action. Before he could think too much about it, his legs were pumping, his boots striking the rooftop rapidly, forcing himself faster and faster while his eyes stayed trained on the distant roof. It didn't matter that he hadn't done this in a _long_ time. Nothing mattered.

At the ledge, Kanan threw everything he had into the jump and then did the thing he swore he wouldn't do again.

He used the Force.

And like it always was, it was right there waiting for him and it was like breathing. The Force filled his muscles and seemed to lift him, propel him, envelop and keep him as he soared through the sky. For the moment, gravity couldn't touch him. He was weightless under the moonlit sky, and he remembered being a boy and _living_ to feel like this. Liberated. Strong. Free.

Alive.

The throb of his feet colliding with the distant roof tore him from his inner experience, and he let muscle memory drag him through a roll that saved his knees and muffled his collision. Training from a lifetime ago that willful neglect couldn't erase had him twisting around, checking his surroundings, but he was safe. Of course he was safe. He'd made it. He'd used the Force and made it.

But Hera.

Bolting back up, he could make out lights on the other building far away. He could distantly hear shouting. See the flash of blaster bolts. For a single, terrifying second, he couldn't find her in the darkness. He searched the roof for her slim silhouette – _needing_ to find it – but it wasn't there.

To his horror, Hera was already in the air.

Breath raced out of his lungs as he threw his hands forward and merely reacted because she was already at the zenith of her jump and was still too far away. Reaching with that intangible sense he had and swore he'd never use – and constantly realized how much of a liar he was – he felt the shape of her with his mind and clamped down. With a desperate grunt and tight clench of his teeth, he grasped the air with his hands and wrenched.

He hadn't done this in a long time too, and for a hot second he was horrified when the feel of her pulled against his senses, the weight of her body a struggle to support and control since she was external to him and his perception. It was so sudden and surprising in an already tense situation that he was terrified that his hold wasn't strong enough. That he'd drop her and she'd fall to her death below, taking the flash of life that seemed to somehow enhance and magnify _every_ sense of his own, and—

Kanan couldn't let that happen.

Baring his teeth, he threw everything he had into getting her across the gap and out of the air _fast_ because the stormtroopers were coming. If they saw her like this, they'd know something impossible had happened. If they just vanished without a trace, then it could be rationalized away, but if someone saw—

His arms were already open, and a second later he caught her as she slammed into him, her weight solid and real as it caused them to tumble back, roll in a chaotic mess of clothing and limbs that somehow managed to strike every hard bone and soft spot he had. His hands clenched down on her as he curled in, protecting her head and lekku as they finally came to a stop, the world spinning momentarily with all the effort.

He was out of practice, and he could feel it. That internal Force-muscle he'd been well-versed at using when he was a kid was weak and flabby, and after the effort he'd just put into it he was _drained_. Kanan didn't want to think or move for a week, but somehow found the energy to keep her down and below the ledge as light abruptly flashed over them.

Hera clung to him, crouching over his body as he held her tight, and with the moon bright above her, gracing her figure in light, he couldn't think of a time he'd ever seen someone more beautiful. A lek fell over her shoulder to weigh gently beside his neck and she was so real here above him. Alive and radiant.

It made him angry.

"You jumped!" he whispered harshly, holding her arms tight as his heart threatened to beat out of his chest. "I wasn't even ready and you just—!"

"You caught me, Kanan," Hera said, her chest heaving against his, her heart pounding frantically in time with his, but there was no terror on her face. Only an exuberant grin. "I knew you'd catch me."

His world went quiet, and he could only stare.

They stayed still like that for a minute as the lights and the distant chatter of the stormtroopers continued on as they worked out how they could've possibly gotten away. He heard something about jumping. A getaway speeder. Setting up checkpoints.

And then, to their relief, the Imps gave up and went away.

Hera wilted above him, and Kanan refused to let his mind linger on the fact that his very attractive boss was currently straddled atop him close enough he could feel every curve. The darkness had been undisturbed for a few seconds now and gently he eased her to the side so he could catch his breath and calm down. For a while they lay next to each other, waiting for a little while longer just in case.

In the darkness he let his head turn her way.

"You really believed I'd catch you?"

"Why wouldn't I?" she asked, arching a brow. "You said you could do it, and I trust you, Kanan."

He stared at her like she was an impossibility in his world because she _was_.

"I don't think anyone's ever trusted me before. Not like that." _Not in a really long time_ , he quietly added.

She snorted slightly before smirking and rolling her eyes. Carefully she stood up and offered her hand.

"I wouldn't think so. You don't seem the type to trust anyone enough to let them trust you back." She grinned. "Makes me special, I guess."

"Yeah," he breathed, taking her hand and letting her pull him up, amazed. "I guess."

Hera's comlink sounded, Chopper letting them know that he was close enough to pick them up. She looked at Kanan for a moment before she surprised him by saying, "Actually, Chop, we're fine for the time being. Stay close, just in case, but I think everything’s okay now."

Even from where he was, Kanan heard the astromech groan before warbling an affirmative. He thought he heard the _Ghost's_ familiar thrusters a moment later and chuckled.

"So what now, oh fearless leader?" he asked. "If we're not taking off, are we tempting fate again?"

"Eh, we'll let it cool off for a while," the Twi’lek replied before waving him toward a ladder she'd found that led to a landing, a sidewalk, and then a lift which took them all the way down to the bottom level. This was where he'd meant to come if there had been time. It was where all the best lights, the liveliest crowds, best bars and the nicest beach access were at.

"So ... what are we doing then?" he asked as he followed her into the crowd, shifting close so that he wouldn't lose her. Hera surprised him by closing the distance even more. She was close enough that their arms brushed, and he could feel the warmth of her through their clothing, wonderful and pure.

"Well, I did promise a vacation," Hera said. "And this place _is_ known for being a pretty great vacation spot."

He snorted before leaning closer. "I can't believe you had it in you."

She rolled her eyes but didn't say anything except, "Come on." Hera grinned as she glowed in the ambient neon streetlight with the faintest echo of pure moonlight to grace her in magnificence. "How about a drink? I'm buying."

"Oh," Kanan said, a quick grin flashing across his face to match hers. "Well, if the Boss Lady is paying."

He didn't know if it was the high of survival and escape that made her eyes shine like that, made her smile that much brighter and alive, but whatever it was, he couldn't help but drink it in like a Chalactan sunflower.

 _If I stay much longer, I'm going to be in trouble,_ he thought to himself as they moved through the crowd, their arms brushing as they moved together into the glowing lights around them.

And Kanan wondered as he followed her if, in the end, that mattered at all.


End file.
